A Serbian appeals court docket acquitted 4 former intelligence officials jailed for the brutal 1999 homicide of journalist Slavko Curuvija, a fierce critic of past due strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
The verdict was once briefly condemned through opposition politicians and media rights campaigners.
The ruling overturned their earlier convictions in 2021, which noticed the crowd passed long jail sentences.
“The Court docket of Appeals… unearths that the allegations of the accusation have now not been confirmed past a doubt,” learn a observation through the court docket.
There was once no direct or oblique proof that might reliably verify that the defendants had performed the killing, it stated.
The verdict revealed on Friday was once simply the newest in a protracted prison procedure that had already had numerous dramatic twists.
In 2021, a different court docket sentenced former secret police leader Radomir Markovic and the top of Belgrade’s intelligence department Milan Radonjic to 30 years in jail. Two different intelligence officials have been passed 20-year sentences.
An previous court docket ruling had discovered the 4 in charge in 2019, however that call have been overturned and a retrial ordered.
‘Scary message’
Curuvija was once one of the vital vital voices in Serbia within the Nineties, attracting a large readership as the landlord and editor of 2 main impartial publications.
He was once shot 13 occasions in entrance of his Belgrade house throughout the NATO bombing marketing campaign introduced according to the Milosevic authorities’s brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo within the past due Nineties.
His killing got here simply days after pro-government media shops had accused him of being a “traitor” and of getting referred to as on NATO to bomb Serbia.
On Friday, media teams and opposition events denounced the court docket ruling, together with the Slavko Curuvija Basis, a media rights staff named after the slain journalist.
“This can be a transparent signal that the state isn’t ready to care for the darkest portions of its personal products and services from the ’90s, and that they nonetheless have an enormous affect on each the judiciary and the political processes in Serbia,” the basis stated on social media.
The Motion of Unfastened Electorate, a political celebration in a number one opposition coalition, additionally condemned the ruling.
It proved the “complete state equipment and all branches of presidency are getting used to protect the regime of Slobodan Milosevic”.
Jelena Curuvija, the slain journalist’s daughter, advised broadcaster N1 that the ruling was once “a transparent, scary message to all reporters”.
Paris-based media rights staff Journalists With out Borders stated they have been “devastated” through the acquittal.
“The attraction verdict represents a difficult blow to the combat in opposition to impunity for crimes on reporters within the Balkans”, stated Pavol Szalai, head of RSF’s Ecu Union-Balkans table.
And america ambassador to Serbia, Christopher Hill, additionally expressed dismay in a put up to X, previously Twitter.
“Disheartening to peer that justice and responsibility for the killers of Slavko Curuvija stay elusive, even 25 years after his homicide,” he wrote. “Asad day for journalism.”
Reporters have lengthy been focused in Serbia, the place newshounds and editors vital of the government had been assaulted and intimidated.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who served as data minister beneath Milosevic, ceaselessly berates critics throughout his near-daily public addresses.
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